RAIDERS MOVING ON - Pioneer Press

STATE BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: CLASS 4A QUARTERFINAL >> CRETIN-DERHAM HALL 69, ROCHESTER JOHN MARSHALL 57

RAIDERS MOVING ON

Top-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall flexes its muscle in grounding Rockets

Cretin-Derham Hall’s Joe Mitchell (2) drives past Rochester John Marshall’s Denard Simpson (4) during the second half of the Raiders’ 4A quarterfinal victory Tuesday at Target Center. CRAIG LASSIG — SPECIAL TO THE PIONEER PRESS

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By Dane Mizutani

dmizutani@pioneerpress.com

The expectations were sky high for top seed Cretin-Derham Hall heading into the state boys basketball tournament. It comes with the territory of being the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4A.

Fortunately, Raiders head coach Jerry Kline has spent much of this season teaching his players how to deal with the pressure.

“We’ve never talked about the number in front of our school,” Kline said. “We’ve only talked about the next game.”

The next game for Cretin-Derham Hall was a matchup with Rochester John Marshall on Tuesday morning at Target Center in the quarterfinals of the state boys basketball tournament. Led by a balanced scoring attack, the Raiders rolled to a 69-57 victory to advance to the semifinals on Thursday night at Williams Arena.

“It doesn’t matter where we’re ranked or what seed we have,” Kline said. “We just care about how to move on to the next game.”

Joe Mitchell and Ty Schlagel finished with 16 points apiece for Cretin-Derham Hall, while Notre Dame commit Tommy Ahneman had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Teammate Jason Johnson chipped in with 12 points.“We’ve got Tommy, and he creates a lot of attention,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got guys on the outside ready to shoot, and when we knock stuff down, it makes them have to guard us a little bit more, which leaves room for him to create.”

The offense for the Raiders ran through Ahneman for most of the game, whether he was going to work on the low block with his wide array of post moves, or making the right pass to a teammate when faced with a double team.

“They matched up really well with us,” Ahneman said. “It was a really good all around game and a good team win.”

The game was never really in doubt, though, as the Raiders gave themselves a nice cushion in the opening minutes and rode that to a 35-26 advantage at the end of the first half.

“We knew they had a lot of size and a lot of athleticism,” Schlagel said. “I feel like our coaches prepped us well for that.”

Most of the production for Rochester John Marshall came from the trio of Elijah Ladu, Angok Kucha and Deng Lueth, who, respectively, finished 15 points, 14 points and 13 points.

Meanwhile, Brayson Sawyer, who was the second-leading scorer for the Rockets this season, struggled to produce at the level he’s used to while being locked up by Johnson on most possessions.

“His ability to defend sometimes goes unnoticed,” Kline said while going out of his way to make sure Johnson got his flowers. “He’s an unsung hero for us because he’s an elite defender, and I’m sure glad he’s on our team.”

Rochester John Marshall tried to chip away at the deficit in the second half, it wasn’t nearly enough to complete the comeback.

“I’ve never questioned their heart, and this was no different,” Rockets coach Jim Daly said. “They gave me everything they had, and we came up a little bit short.”